My third ASA adjudication: Groupon’s Live Blood Test claims exaggerated, misleading and unsubstantiated

My blog started in March of this year, when I found out about Live Blood Analysis (and the related Alkaline Diet). It is a practice promoted and taught by ‘Dr’ Robert O Young (subject of my second adjudication), based on the laughable and long-disproven theory of (extreme) pleomorphism (the idea that the body’s own cells transform into bacteria and fungi).

Since March, I have made a series of complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority about misleading and unsubstantiated claims made by LBA practitioners. The majority of these have been informally resolved (when the advertisers agreed to remove problematic claims). Unfortunately some practitioners did not agree to remove their claims. According to this letter from the ASA, they aren’t going to pursue all my complaints formally but will instead focus on one or two. The letter also said “if Council goes on to make a formal adjudication, we will in all likelihood follow up with compliance action across the sector”.

I am hopeful that this is such an adjudication.

My second ASA adjudication: Alkaline diet claims misleading and ‘Dr’ Robert O Young lacks credentials

My second full ASA adjudication was published almost two weeks ago while I was away on holiday. I may not have blogged it immediately but I was delighted by this result and am proud to have been behind it.

As the ASA point out, ‘Dr’ Young has no medical qualifications but holds a PhD. In fact his PhD came from the same defunct, non-accredited distance learning college as that of Gillian McKeith, who stopped using the title ‘Dr’ following an ASA complaint.

ASA not able to pursue all my Live Blood Analysis complaints… Hopefully compliance action across the sector to follow.

Finding out about Live Blood Analysis, a highly dubious procedure with similarly dubious practitioners was what gave me the impetus to start making complaints and blogging. I am now hopeful that the Advertising Standards Authority will reward my efforts with compliance action across the sector.

Daily Mail Good Health Editor still believes carbon dioxide is the main source of alkaline material in the body

I’ve had a reply from the Daily Mail’s Good Health Editor following my recent complaint about an article entitled ‘How too much cheese and meat can make your body dangerously acidic’:

Dear Daily Mail, it was irresponsible of you to promote ‘Dr’ Robert O Young’s wacky theory

I was made aware yesterday of an article in the Daily Mail entitled ‘How too much cheese and meat can make your body dangerously acidic’. I found this impossible to ignore and emailed the following to the author of the piece, copying in letters@dailymail.co.uk: